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Saturday, 15 August 2015

A weavers tale...

I thought I would share something different with you today...

Many moons ago I went to college (I'm not gonna tell you how long because it makes me feel old he he!) and at college I studied art in many forms. I did the traditional drawing and painting but also some textile arts. I loved the textile arts more than I did the paining and drawing as I had less criticisms from the tutors for these. Yes I was criticised heavily by my teachers who just didn't 'get me', it's only because I loved art so much that I carried on regardless but that is another story for another day! The two textile art modules that I took where weaving and batik.

I haven't thought about my weaving for a long, long time. I used to love it though and got some very good marks for it. One day I was browsing on instagram and a weaving came up in my feed. I followed some of the hastags as I often do and found myself immersed in various weaving accounts which I have been lusting over ever since.

I decided to get my loom out again, I kept it becuase I knew one day I would use it again. Since I saw those photos I have actually made a few weavings, it's a bit like riding a bike, how to do it came flooding back to me. I am not quite as good as I used to be as following an accident I had last year with one of my hands my dexterity skills aren't quite as good as they used to be for finer work. Still I don't let that deter me, I enjoy it and find it very relaxing. As much as I like to paint and draw, there is something to be said for making or crafting somthing 3d with your hands and seeing it come to life.

I am always looking at different woold and fibres as my love for the art has never waivered. One of the things with weaving or textile arts is that it can be more pleasing to the eye to have more textures to look at so when I saw the twine from Timeless Twine I knew it would be perfect to incorporate into a weaving project!

I used the pink and white twine to create the warp. The warp is the vertical threads that you then weave your project onto. Once this was done I was then off! Here is what my finished piece looks like:

As you can see I used various shades of pink and white. I used this colour scheme as I had a friend in mind that I wanted to make this for and she loves pink!

I used a stick that I found when out on one of my walks in the woods near where I live. I love that you can bring personal elements that mean something to you into your art and your work. I used the same twine for the hanging loop.

Here are some close up images of the finished piece:

As I mentioned, this was a gift for a friend so I had to package it up all nicely. Funnily enough, packaging and wrapping is not my strong point what so ever! I have never been very good at it, I don't know why! Anyways I try my best. I used manilla tissue paper to wrap it up, folded a doilly round (I have Pinterest to thank for that!) and then used one of the other twines to 'string it up'. If I do say so myself, it looks rather nice.

I really hope my friend likes it and I hope you have enjoyed seeing something a little bit different to my usual art / journal / planner posts!